Feature: Top 5 video games based on movies

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It’s that time of the year again where we can’t help getting swept up in all the pumping circumstance that comes along with the Academy Awards. But, even though there were some wonderful movies out in the last 12 months, I want to celebrate the five best games based on Hollywood’s offerings.

6. Superman 64 (based on Superman)

It took them 63 goes, but they got the formula spot on with Superman 64. Launching on the Nintendo in the summer of 1999, Superman 64 delighted Marvel fans across the globe as it really captured what made Clark Gable great by having players fly through loads of green rings. In many ways Superman 64 was ahead of its time with its challenging control scheme. Dark Souls developer Firm Software has credited this take on The Daily Bugle reporter as inspiration for what they would go onto do many years later.

5. Hannah Montana: The Movie: The Game of the Film (based on Hannah Montana: The Movie: of the TV Show)

The TV show explored her double life, but the game based on the film of the television programme put you right in the shoes of the young country starlet. After a deal is struck between music mogul Pete Waterman and her father Billy Bob Thornton, Miley Cyrus is tasked with becoming the famously deceased pop princess Hannah Montana, and it’s your job to fool fans into thinking you are who you say you are. It’s sort of like what Paul McCartney and Joe Swash have done for years.

Through some exceptional mini-games where you feed your horse, clothe yourself, and dance on stage like someone who’s just discovered you can move your body rhythmically, Hannah Montana: The Game of the Film that was first on the telly is a must have for people who enjoyed the TV show, maybe.

4. Doom (based on Doom)

In 2005 the movie world changed forever as we were introduced to Reaper and Sarge, collectively known as Sarge and Reaper. Costing $60 million to produce, Doom came to cinemas over here and theatres in America, and took in a whopping $56 million at the box office – no small chunk of change.

The movie studio knew the people wanted more, and they got that in the form of a video game a short 11 years after. Sure, the video game playing public were a bit gutted to see it take place on Hell instead of Mars, and Nicole Kidman’s husband was nowhere to be found, but it was a promising opener. There’s potential for this series to be around for a long time.

3. Super Mario Bros. (based on Super Mario Bros.)

They had the foresight to release this eight years before the film it was based on came out. That’s impressive.

2. Watch Dogs (based on Watchdog)

For the past 40 years Watchdog has been fighting for consumer rights on British television, but its greatest achievement was being the catalyst for a game where you commit an insurmountable number of crimes. Apparently, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was on a press tour in the UK promoting Imagine: Party Babyz in 2008, and had just gotten back to his hotel after an especially grueling day, turned on his hotel TV, and asked his P.A. ‘why is The Weakest Link woman exposing Ryanair?’

Yves was hooked.

He got his best men and women on the case, struck a deal with the Beeb, and six years later Watch Dogs was born. Some weren’t happy with robbery and violence replacing the encouragement of policy change in large corporations, but the rest of us knew what had been done was a step forward for the interactive adaptation of investigative journalism on BBC.

1. Aliens: Colonial Marines (based on the Alien/s films)

Enemies could be found glitching in the environment or sometimes just walk straight past you, it retconned some pivotal story beats, and was a very different looking game upon launch to the one that was seen in gameplay videos mere months before. Genius.

A Xenomorph is meant to surprise and unsettle you, and Colonial Marines most certainly did that. Ripley! Believe it or not, we finally got a good Alien game in 2013. It’s just a shame we had Isolation 12 months later and are still waiting on an A:CM sequel.

We may wait a little while longer to see Oscar acknowledge a film based on a game, but who knows what could happen in the next year? The new Tomb Raider film could be an absolute belter. Detective Pikachu could be The Shawshank Redemption for a new generation. But, if we’re all honest with ourselves, I think we all know there’s a big release at the tail end of 2018 that will certainly have movie critics weak at the knees. There’s your Oscar winner.